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July 8, 2006
Braille Mobile Phone
A long time ago, a visually impaired reader sent me an email asking me if it were possible to change my website to be more compatible with screen readers. He loved reading my old blog but at the time my design focused more on aesthetics than usability, therefor if you didn't have the latest browser and flash plug-in, you were pretty much screwed.
When I restarted this blog, I made sure it conformed with screen reader specs, allowing the CSS to scale the layout when necessary. I hope he's still reading because this new little invention by Samsung may just be a revolution waiting to happen for all visually impaired people and I thought of him when I first read the article.
It's called the Touch Messenger and it recently won the Gold Award at IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Awards), an extremely competitive competition by the world's top designers and firms.
The Touch Messenger enables visually impaired users to send and receive braille text messages. The phone has two keypads. The upper keypad is where you input your messages. The lower keypad displays incoming messages by raising bumps to form braille lettering. The phone operates on standard GSM networks making it compatible with services like Cingular and T-Mobile.
Although the phone is only a concept, there is a possibility of Samsung commercializing the product. When that happens, it could boost the quality of life for over 180 million people worldwide.
Samsung, BRING IT!
Posted by tranism at 7:28 PM | Permalink
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Comments
That is brilliant!
Posted by: Charlie at July 9, 2006 8:31 PM
I read (I think it was in the IHT) the other day that they've also developed a device that'll take printed text (like the paper, for instance), and turn it into speech synthesis on-the-fly...
However, as I know from one of my best friends being blind, the technology won't come into the hands of the users for years to come, as the state, or whatever local institution responsible for parts of the financing and import of this equpment are infuriatingly slow-paced...
Posted by: John at July 17, 2006 4:33 PM